Starting on a New Hoof

by Dracoraun

Departure and Arrival

The damn shone into my eyes and woke me up before I really wanted to. I grumbled as I rubbed my eyes with my hooves, only to poke my eye and make a quick shout of pain. I suppose I still wasn't used to my body yet, and I just grumbled as I rolled off the bed. My legs were sore as hell, especially the one where I got the nasty gash on. Not to mention I didn't sleep too well with Fleet hogging the blankets all night. Considering how there were so many of us, and only three beds, we had to partner up. They didn't want to spend the money on two rooms, considering we still had to take the train to Ponyville. But seriously, that name wasn't the most clever thing I've heard. Oh well. So, there lay Fleet Flier, wrapped up like a pony burrito, with the stupidest grin on his face.

Sighing as I turned around, I got a good view of the outside from through the oddly clear glass. The ground outside was green. Like really, really green. You know how most grass has at least one or two spot of yellow if it's just growing naturally? Yeah, this didn't. I let out another sigh at this perfect world and began to wonder once more why I was in such a rush to get home. I guess I really wanted to see the people I missed the most, like my family and Sarah. Not to mention being a pony was still insane. And to top it all off, I got to see a bright white light that made my mind trip out a bit. I heard the sound of something hitting the floor, and I turned around to see Stormy standing there, rubbing her eyes in a similiar fasion that I had. She looked over at me and yawned, causing me to yawn short after. After she finished yawning, then laughing at my echoed yawn, she began to speak to me.

"Hello, High Wing. You're up early... I thought you'd be the late sleeper type"

"Yeah? Well, there's more to me then meets the eye" I said with unintentional hostility.

"Nothing could be closer to the truth. You're much more insane then you look" She responded with a half smile. I just frowned and shook my head.

"Oh, think what you've heard so far is insane? Just wait 'till I tell you what happened yesterday. You'd get a laugh out of it. Knowing you, of course" I said, taking my attention off of her, then back outside.

"Why? What happened yesterday?" Was her response

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Well, of course I would!" She began to walk closer. I turned around and was met with her face, much to close to mine for comfort. I jumped back and hit my head on the window sill.

"What? Not used to being close to ponies?" She said with a frown.

"Two words. Personal. Space. Heard of it?" Not that I was trying to be rude, but my head was ringing from the shock I recieved. I began to rub my hoof against the back of my, expecting blood but not seeing any on my hoof as I pulled it down.

"You ponies are resiliant... Get in a train wreck and come out with nothing more then bumps and bruises." I continued slightly under my breath. She somehow heard me though.

"Isn't that normal? What, you humans squishy tomatoes or something?" She said with a giggle.

"Squishy tomatoes? Yeah, say that to a gun, why don't you" I said, defensively. She was insulting my species, after all.

"Gun? What in the name of Celestia is that?" A look of confusion began to take root in her face. I realized that none of these ponies would have any idea what that was, and I let out a sigh. Before I could get in an explaining mode, she changed the subject.

"So anyways. Yesterday. What happened to you that would make me think you're insane? Well, more then I do already."

"Right. Well, I guess I can share that with you." I frowned and looked up, letting out a breif sight. Well, here goes.

"Okay, so I just finished rolling down a really long hill and somehow staying alive, which is still a mystery to me, and I began to see double with my head ringing. I saw bright lights around, y'know, like you do when you get a head injury or staring in the sun- Don't say what I know you want to- but turns out, one of those spots of light didn't want to fade. It began to come closer to me, and I started to freak. Now, get this. It. Began. To. Talk. Yeah, it freaked me out too. So, what could a glowing orb of light say to a human-gone-pony? Not much, as it turns out. In fact, it didn't tell me any freaking thing. It's words are more riddled then Confucious explaining child birth to his son. All it told me was I was "Here for a reason" What reason, you may want to ask? I don't fucking know. I don't know at all, and it refused to tell me. And as I began to become frustrated at its cryptic responses, it faded and you guys came over the hill like calvery minus the riders. In fact, you could be calvery all by yourself. Not that you'd know what that is, and I really don't feel like explaining it. Now, I could tell you what happened after that, but you were there, so it'd be kind of pointless. Any questions, refer them to my non-existant psychologist, because my answers will be vague as I have no idea what that was or why it was there."

She stood there, a half frown on her face which signified her trying to process all I had said. She remained relitively silent for at least a minute or two before refering her attention back at me.

"So, this light thing... Sure it wasn't a figment of your imagination?"

"Pretty damn sure. At least, I hope so. Otherwise that would be a full-blown hallucination, and that would signify a high level of insanity, and nothing around me could be real. Hell, that might be what's going on. I don't know" Turns out, I was getting slightly loud. The others began to get up and look at us, with varying responses.

"Dears... What's going on...?" Picturesque said with the smallest little yawn I ever saw, and covered her mouth like it was a gigantic one. Fleet, on the other hand, stretch up and yawned really loudly, smacking his pony lips together loudly.

"Mornin'. You should be an alarm clock, High Wing. You're better it then flying, anyways." He said with a tired laugh. Thunder just silently stood up next to his bed as Canvas rolled off and grunted when he hit the floor. Treble, already standing gracefull, extended her hoof to him as he used it to grapple up, a slight blush on his face and then thanked her non-chalantly.

I cut a glare over at Fleet Flier, then a sidelong glance over to Picturesque and Thunder, who were sharing a bed with Stormy before she got up. I let out a sigh as I began to talk,

"Nothing is the matter. We were just talking about the train wreck... Nothing more-" Before I finished, Stormy whacked me in the back of the head with her hoof.

"Ow! The hell was that for!?" I shouted, quite frustrated

"Don't hide things from our friends... It's not nice" She rolled her eyes as she looked over at them

"He saw a weird light thing which told him absouletly nothing. Just that he was here for a reason. In all honesty, High, I believe you. Just like giving you a hard time." She giggled slightly as she sat down and let out a satisfied sigh, and looking up. The others began to stare, but they decided to stay quiet. I guess it was because how they were woken up. By me yelling, of course.

"I'd hate to be the voice of reason, colts... But don't we have a train to catch?" Fleet Flier said, rubbing his eyes vigorously, like he saw a hot chick and was rubbing his eyes to make sure it was real.

"I have never once imagined I would say this but... Fleet is right. It burns just saying it..." Picturesque said, with a face as if she ate a sour lemon or something

"I am? I mean, of course I am!" Fleet said, suddenly stopping rubbing his now red eyes as he puffed his chest out, staring at his with his wild orange eyes and equally wild red mane. It took a second for him to realize that none of us were amused, which shocked me immensly. Not that it took him so long, but that his dense skull ever figured it out.

"Well, let's stop wasting time then. Come on, the train's not going to wait." Thunder said, the obvious leader of this group. I just let out a sigh as I found myself following him, but not really wanting to compete with his authority, as I didn't care that much. The walk was boring, and the smell of wood never really appealed to me. Didn't change in the pony world either. Not to mention the sight of planks everywhere, not changing or anything, would bore the shit out of me. This didn't change as well. Perfect wood is still boring old wood. We got outside, not quick enough if you ask me, and noticed the train pull up. If we had wasted another moment, we would have missed it.

"Thank Celestia for me, right colts? Wooo! I'm awesome." He smirked and puffed out his chest again in his over arrogent way. Stormy just cut her eyes and whispered over to me.

"Toss that guy a hay stock, and he comes back for the whole bale." She frowned. I roughly translated this into one of my normal sayings, and nodded.

"Right. I'll keep that in mind. Not that I'm apt to give anyone compliments any time soon." Suddenly, some crazy pony rushed past us into the train and bumped into me, knocking me into Stormy. I fell over, but somehow Stormy remained on her hooves. She giggled and blushed as she extended a hoof to me. I just grumbled and helped myself up.

"It's okay, I can get myself up. That guy needs to watch where he's going... Seriously" I frowned and looked over to the train as we continued to walk

"Woah, Staillion, you that oblivious or something?" Fleet said to me for absolutely no reason.

"What are you talking about? He ran into me!" I said, grumbling a bit

"I mean-" Fleet started, but was quickly cut off by Stormy

"Right! Let's keep going! Lest we get hit by another rushing pony..." She said, blushing for no reason at all. I just nodded and zoned off into my own world again, and continued to wal. Before I realized it, we were all in one of the cars of the train as it began to start slowly. We all just looked at eachother, then out the windows, sporatic conversation popping up once in a while. I took part in none of it, not even knowing exactly why we were going to Ponyville. I guess they didn't really know of a better place to go to, and I hoped this was a large city. I seriously can't work with the small talk of rural people, or ponies in this case. I, born and raised in New York, suffered two culture shocks at once in this case. Being in smaller cities, and the inhabitants of those cities being ponies. I looked forward to one of those shocks going away. Apperently, we were closer then I thought. I let out a sigh as the train stopped. Another awkward moment in that train would have driven me insane.

The world I stepped out into was entirely different then I imaged. It was a small city, if it could even be called that. A couple ponies walked through the streets, as pegasi flew in the sky. This town was even smaller then the one I awoke in.

"For Chrissake! I thought this would be a city! It's a small town! What can we find here?" I said, obviously frustrated.

The others just looked at me and shrugged as well. Thunder looked around and let out a sigh.

"I suppose you're right. They have a library here, I think, but it's small." He looked off in some direction. I just let out a frustrated sigh and sat down on something sharp and jumped up quickly, looking for what I sat on, but not being able to find it. Even more frustrated, I turned around and watched as the train took off. Let me tell ya, that didn't help my frustration at all.

"Great! Just shitting great! Well, what now?" Was my response to the rising frustration and anger. Sure made me feel better.

"Well, when the next train comes, we can always go to the Maretro Station... Leads to a really large city, and also branches off to at least 10 others just in case." Thunder said with a frown.

"And I'm all about the now, colts! Let's get something to eat while we wait. Hm... Is there anything good around here?" Fleet said, looking around. Seems his brain was only linked to his wings and stomach. Proving my theory, he tripped and fell down the stairs. Picturesque just shook her head, trying to cover a small laugh that we all saw anyways. Stormy looked off to a rather colorful building. Which was an inane observation, considering all of the buildings were colorful.

"I'm not that hungry, but I can always do for some sweets. That place looks like it sells something sweet. Why not check it out?" She said with a smile. For once, I agreed with her. Sweets sounded awesome right now. Suddenly, I became concerned that their sweets were chocolate coated hay or something, but those concerns got expelled the second I walked in and saw normal sweets. I gave a satisfied smile as I saw doughnuts. Oh, doughnuts. How I missed them.

"Get me a couple of those doughnuts, why don't you!" I said with a hungry smile.

"You know what a doughnut is?" Stormy said, half jokingly.

"Well, duh! I'm not that oblivious..." I said, finding myself on the defencive once again

"You sure, stallion? Ha ha ha." Fleet said with a smirk. Again, I had no idea what he was saying.

"Let's get those doughtnuts! Good idea! I'll have some too! Let's go order now!" Stormy said, rushing everyone over to the counter. I just sat down as I waited. My thoughts had a miscarraige as an energetic pink pony ran out from the back room rather loudly, running past us shouting something about something, but I wasn't paying attention.

"How odd was that?" I said to myself, under my breath. After a few dragging minutes, everyone joined me around the table with some various sweet or another, then placed them around the table. I held my breath, expecting some religious pony thing, but only getting a bunch of ponies digging in to their food and eating it quickly. I just furrowed my brows, and shook my head. I began to eat the doughnut, and my mouth was met with an amazing flurry of tastes. Everything was better in this world. Everything. This doughnut was proof. I honestly thought no donuts were better then that small donut shop I had gone to in New York. But those don't even compare. I. Was. Shocked. I mean, really shocked. Before I knew it, all the doughtnuts were gone, and I was left frowning for more. The others seemed to be equally satisfied, and Fleet let out a rather large burp which had me smiling slightly, and left Picturesque sneering.

"That wasn't very polite for a public place..." Picturesque said, a look of disdain on her face

"Calm down, Picturesque. It's natural, not that you haven't done it before, just he didn't hide it behind a napkin" Stormy said with a slight giggle

"Handkerchief" Picturesque corrected

"Yeah, it's a napkin" Stormy laughed as she whiped her face with a napkin of her own. Or, as Picturesque would call it, a hankercheif.

"Right then. Seeing as Fleet is obviously too busy to be the voice of reason, I'd say it's my turn. Let me just give you a hint. Train." Not that I didn't want more of those wonderful treats, just that I wanted to not miss the train and be stuck here any longer.

"Okay, let's get going then." Thunder said in his straightforward way. I just nodded as well all stood up, well Fleet Flier fell then rolled up, acting like he meant to do that, but I digress. It didn't take long for us to make it to the train. One thing I had to hand, or rather hoof, to ponies is that they're fast. We beat the train this time, but not by much. Before we could gather our thoughts, or for Picturesque and fleet to start fighting, or even before Canvas and Treble to start flirting, the train arrived. And that's fast. Not really wanting to stay for anything, we hurried off into the train. Looking off through the window, I let out a sigh. Hopefully, I'll get more answers at the not very clever named train station, the Maretro Station.